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The 3rd annual Des Arts, a celebration of the arts in Des Plaines presented by the Des Plaines Arts Council, wrapped up October 18 with the announcement of winners of the Des Arts Contest 2014.

Continue Reading "Des Arts, Des Winners, Des Fantastic!" →

DIVE IN!  That is all I could think, standing on a catwalk at the Hershey factory behind coke bottle thick security glass, overlooking a ridiculously enormous vat of melted chocolate.  The smell?  Transcendent.  The sight?  Heavenly.  Are you drooling yet?

Continue Reading "National Chocolate Day" →

In just one week, we’ll be seeing all sorts of creatures wandering around our neighborhoods: superheroes, zombies, princesses and monsters.  While we all enjoy the costumes, and the candy, of course, Halloween can also be a fun time to make connections with all of the wonders of science. 

Continue Reading "Satisfy Your Inner Mad Scientist with Science Databases" →

Years ago, deciding how to vote for judges was a dilemma.

You could just close your eyes and throw a dart, or try to divine the ethicity or gender of the judge's name and vote by those assumptions.

Neither, method was satifactory. One puts it in the hands of fate and the other encourages your biases.

Today, I have a more logical two step method.

• My first step is to get a copy of my ballot from the Cook County Clerk's Suburban elections page. The link to  Voter Information will provide a search box for your address and from there you can print out your ballot.
   
• The second step is to go to  VoteforJudges.org. The ratings of the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening (11 bar associations) are presented in an easy to read chart. In a separate link, the ratings of the Chicago Bar Association is presented. From here I mark my ballot with my notations, yay or nay, and take it to the ballot box with me on Election Day. Please note, not all the judges on the evaluation charts will be on your ballot.

Happy voting.

Gosh, I love Halloween. And so do the rest of you, by the looks of it.  According to Forbes, 158 million of us got our Halloween on last year, spending an average of $78.03 per 'celebrating consumer' on decor, costumes, candy and fun.

We spent $2.6 billion on costumes alone (not counting the $330 million spent on pet costumes.

Can't leave our pets out of the fun.

Continue Reading "Who needs Party City? Make DPPL your Halloween costume destination" →